Grammafying at the Pensacola Network

As Robin and Lloyd Reshard’s Pensacola Network nears its third year, its reputation for networking opportunities and outstanding speakers is unrivaled. Friday, March 25th, was no exception as they presented Mamie Hixon, grammar goddess, director of the UWF Writing Lab, linguist, author, and dancer with exceptional flair, as the speaker for the evening. Tonya Jackson, with The Pensacola Voice, CHOICE 106.9 FM & WRNE 980 FM, and She’s Social, was the guest host.

Despite what many of us may think, Hixon readily admits that she doesn’t know everything about grammar, but she knows what she doesn’t know, and she knows what tools to use to get the answer. While discussing her topic “Grammafying: Business Writing in the 21st Century” she shared, “So many people are revealing who they are, revealing too much about themselves when they’re writing incorrectly in any form of social media because language emits a social, intellectual, educational, message about its sender. And we should want to make an impression with our language use.”

Hixon added, “For every English sentence we want to utter, or write on social media or whatever medium we are using, we should have, according to linguists, 1560 ways to write that sentence or say to that sentence. We have our tuxedo clothes for going out. We have our dressy clothes for going to church and work. And we have our t-shirt clothes for just being casual. Our language is the same way. Sometimes we get hopelessly locked into one way of thinking, one level of speaking, one level of writing.” Hixon’s presentation entertained and informed those in attendance.

The next Pensacola Network is scheduled for Friday, April 22nd at 5:00 pm. The topic is “Women’s Equity and Entrepreneurship” and one of the featured speakers will be Nicole Dixon with the Shepreneur Club House. Robin and Lloyd invite you to attend, and they want you to bring plenty of business cards.